In the Belgian capital of Brussels, explosions have hit the international airport and a city metro station, reportedly killing more than two dozen people and wounding scores. Belgium’s federal prosecutor said the two blasts at the airport were carried out by a suicide bomber. There were also reports of shots fired before the explosions at the airport, which occurred at about 8 a.m. this morning. About an hour later, another explosion hit the Maelbeek metro station.

“These really are two very central targets,” says Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director for Human Rights Watch and a native of Belgium. “The Schuman and Maelbeek stations are where most of the European bureaucrats get out of the metro to go to work, and these attacks took place just after 9:00, just as people were getting to the office, including my own colleagues at Human Rights Watch. They left the metro just minutes before these explosions took place. It certainly has shook Belgium to the core.” We speak with Bouckaert in Geneva for the latest.

The World Socialist Web Site condemns the bombings that took place Tuesday morning in Brussels, killing 30 people and wounding 230 at Zaventem Airport and the Maelbeek metro station. While Belgian authorities imposed a gag order on their investigation of the attacks, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility in a statement posted by its Amaq news agency. This horrific attack targeted innocent people in no way responsible for the imperialist wars that have devastated the Middle East. Fifteen years of wars, terror attacks, and escalating police state measures since the September 11, 2001 bombings in the United States have conclusively demonstrated that such bloodshed invariably plays into the hands of the most reactionary forces: here.

“CRASS” Ukip leaders were roundly condemned yesterday for attempting to make “political capital” out of the triple terrorist bombing in Brussels.

Ukip defence spokesman Mike Hookem blamed EU internal open-border policies for the murder of at least 30 people in the Belgian capital.

“This horrific act of terrorism shows that Schengen free movement and lax border controls are a threat to our security,” he claimed in a statement shared by Ukip leader Nigel Farage.

“There are 94 returned jihadists currently living in Molenbeek, Brussels. This fact alone should alert people to the fact that open borders are putting the lives of European citizens at risk.”

Prime Minister David Cameron said the comments were “not appropriate” and former Labour leader Ed Miliband accused Ukip of trying to “use this terrible tragedy to make political capital” in the run-up to the EU referendum.

A spokesman for Hope Not Hate told the Star: “While most people were too still too shocked to react, or were thinking of those killed and injured, it seems that there was no depth to which others would stoop in order to peddle their racism and prejudice for a bit of political point-scoring.

“Trying to link attacks by Isis to Britain’s place inside the EU isn’t just wrong, given the timing it’s also incredibly tactless and crass.”

The BBC reported yesterday that most of the extremists involved in the terror cell believed to be behind the attack are Brussels-born.

Salah Abdeslam, charged this week over his role in the Paris massacre last November, is also a Belgian-born French national.